The Bombardier train factory teetered on the brink of closure in 2011, when it lost a key contract for British carriages to Germany. The Derby site survived, but the debate over protecting high-value domestic jobs from foreign competition rumbles on, especially with Brexit on the way.

Memories of the Bombardier furore are still fresh at the Department for Transport, it seems, because the latest ministerial incumbent appears determined to ensure that manufacturing work stays within these shores.

Transport secretary Chris Grayling is taking advantage of the government’s apprenticeship drive to keep jobs in the UK, rather than with EU manufacturing rivals like Germany, ahead of Brexit. January’s industrial strategy called on all construction, infrastructure and capital investment projects worth £10m-plus to take into account apprenticeships and skills development as part of tender evaluation.

Sources close to Grayling say he believes this emphasis on apprentices can be used to help British firms win major domestic transport contracts or, at least, make sure overseas groups build the infrastructure and vehicles in the UK.

Eurosceptics, and even EU-supportive unions, have complained for years that the EU rules – or Ojeu rules, named after the journal that contract bids are printed in – do not take into account practical domestic advantages to promote its agenda of borderless competition. The UK has typically adhered to Ojeu rules more closely than other members, but the procurement contracts are free to stipulate that local skills must be improved as a result of a contract award.

Grayling is said to be basing his drive on Crossrail, the £15bn east-to-west London rail route now known as the Elizabeth Line. This has used the procurement process to create hundreds of apprenticeships and enrol thousands of people into a tunnelling academy in Ilford, east London.

Transport secretary Chris Grayling believes emphasis on apprentices will help British firms win major contracts. Photograph: Will Oliver/EPA

Adopting this model would boost skills in an industry that is likely to struggle post-Brexit, given it is reliant on eastern European labour, while also making sure government spending remains in the UK. A DfT source tells the Observer: “Every major procurement contract has got to leave a skills footprint in the UK, so you have to have apprenticeships. It’s a way of leveraging [transport] jobs into the UK: a German company that wins a job is unlikely to fly lots of British apprentices for training in Frankfurt.”

Richard Threlfall, head of infrastructure building and construction at KPMG, adds: “This is a neat way of meeting two objectives: to get the transport industry to invest more in the training and development of its staff and to drive up the value of contracts within the UK.”

A third rail source says: “This makes a stack of sense – for every ‘x’ number of pounds on a contract, there should be a British apprentice created.”

However, critics believe this goes against the spirit of EU competitiveness. A senior infrastructure figure says: “This plays fast and loose with Ojeu, it’s a lot of sleight of hand. Overseas companies will be a lot more careful before deciding whether they should bid for British contracts.”

Sources say Grayling is looking to go further than the business department’s industrial strategy, but that document made clear that it wants major projects to focus on developing the UK’s waning construction-related skills.

Amanda Clack, the president of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors, warned last year that the UK is “in the grip of our worst construction skills crisis in almost 20 years”. The industry fears these problems will be worsened by Brexit, given it filled labour shortages after the EU expanded in 2004, but Leave supporters, and even the likes of Remain-voting former business secretary Vince Cable, believe secession can be used to develop skills.

A DfT spokeswoman said the industrial strategy aimed to boost apprenticeships, but otherwise declined to comment. Nonetheless, Brexit could have a silver lining for future manufacturing professionals.